Supposedly initially a K-Magnificence trend, the term slugging seems to have to start with surfaced in the United States in a 2014 put up in a Reddit subgroup. But it didn’t go viral right until Charlotte Palermino, a New York Town-dependent accredited aesthetician and co-founder of skin treatment corporation Dieux, released the concept to her TikTok and Instagram followers in September 2020, telling them it had designed her dry skin “juicy.” As of push time, the hashtag #slugging has 235.5 million views on TikTok.
Petroleum jelly, which is also regarded as petrolatum and was initially bought by Vaseline, is a white or yellowish semisolid compound made up of a combination of complicated hydrocarbons by dewaxing crude oil. According to Joshua Zeichner, a skin doctor and associate professor of dermatology at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, it is an occlusive component: “It varieties a seal over the stratum corneum (outer layer of pores and skin or pores and skin barrier) to guard the pores and skin from the ecosystem when avoiding drinking water reduction.”
By forming this seal — which keeps dirt and microorganisms out and dampness in — the petroleum jelly creates the ideal natural environment to allow your pores and skin to maintenance by itself, Zeichner mentioned. And, he and Palermino said, slugging does not require substantially petroleum jelly. You can use a pea-size part for your entire facial area, fairly than what’s going on in the video down below (you really do not want to wreck your linens).
Although slugging is a new name for it, the act of applying petroleum jelly as a skin protectant is nothing new. In the 15th century, users of the Native American Seneca tribe, who dug oil pits in northwestern Pennsylvania, used petroleum jelly on human and animal pores and skin to protect wounds, encourage therapeutic and keep the skin moist. In the late 19th century, American chemist Robert Chesebrough, viewing oil fields in the same area of northwestern Pennsylvania, noticed oil staff applying the residue from their oil drills on their wounds. Chesebrough brought a sample back again to his Brooklyn lab, purified it, analyzed it on his self-inflicted wounds and in 1870 branded his “miracle jelly” as Vaseline.
When Tiffany Clay, an Atlanta-dependent dermatologist, observed slugging becoming promoted on Instagram, she was amused. “I laughed for the reason that I have been executing it my total lifestyle.” Clay credits her “Black grandmothers who slathered Vaseline on my cousins and me when we bought out of the tub.”
Now, Clay finds herself recommending petroleum jelly in her dermatology practice “at the very least 10 times a day” — for dry pores and skin, wound care, surgical aftercare and “especially for my eczema sufferers who have a compromised pores and skin barrier and are inclined to be on the dry facet.” Signals of a compromised pores and skin barrier can involve redness, dryness, peeling, flaking, burning or stinging.
Ranella Hirsch, a dermatologist based mostly in Cambridge, Mass., agrees. “I convey to dad and mom to coat their little ones with Vaseline when they very first get out of the tub to seal in the humidity,” Hirsch claimed. “We’ve been applying that as normal exercise for the reason that the petrolatum actually features as a top rated coat, trapping in the humidity and blocking transepidermal h2o loss.” Study has shown that in addition to decreasing transepidermal water loss (TEWL), by 99 per cent, petrolatum has anti-microbial homes and accelerates pores and skin therapeutic.
Palermino endorses making use of petroleum jelly in a “moisture sandwich” to entice in the most hydration. “In aesthetician faculty, one particular of the very first points you discover is you hydrate your pores and skin, you moisturize your pores and skin, and then you trap it all in with an occlusive.”
But mainly because of petroleum jelly’s occlusive nature, Hirsch cautions against implementing any energetic elements, these as retinoids, exfoliants or topical vitamin C right before slugging, due to the fact you could damage your pores and skin. “You can take an component that is relatively gentle, and flip it into one thing incredibly powerful by sealing it with petrolatum.”
Though petroleum jelly is considered non-comedogenic (this means it won’t clog pores) because its molecular dimensions is too massive to penetrate deep into the skin, Hirsch warned that slugging is not for anyone. “Generally speaking, I don’t are inclined to advise it [slugging] for individuals who are vulnerable to milia, oily or acne. I just come across occlusives are not a great relationship for them.” Hirsch suggests patch-testing to start with for these pores and skin conditions and if you are prone to allergic reactions.
For seriously dry pores and skin, Susan Taylor, a Philadelphia-primarily based skin doctor and founder of the Pores and skin of Color Modern society, warns that petroleum jelly, by itself, will not moisturize the skin. “I have my people put the petroleum jelly over a moisturizer that has humectant and emollient components.” Taylor also tells individuals to utilize petroleum jelly when skin is moist to “trap in the humidity.”
The Foods and Drug Administration regulates petrolatum as an above-the-counter drug and deems it a harmless and powerful skin protectant when the focus assortment is 30 percent to 100 per cent. But the general public has a pair of fears about petroleum jelly. One is worry about contamination by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which are obviously transpiring chemical compounds uncovered in crude oil that have been considered possible human carcinogens.
The professionals I spoke to explained that whilst unrefined petroleum jelly (which is not permitted in the United States) can be contaminated with PAHs, the petroleum jelly you see on the shelves of your drugstore has been really refined. “Petrolatum is essentially a squander product from the petroleum field that goes via several rounds of refinement until all the impurities have been taken out,” stated Victoria Fu, a skin-treatment science educator, beauty formulation chemist and co-founder of Chemist Confessions, a pores and skin-treatment line. “Petrolatum has been around for so extended and scrutinized by regulators for so long that refined petrolatum has absent by the gamut of screening to make sure basic safety before it hits the cabinets.”
A further issue elevated by critics of slugging is that petroleum jelly, as a byproduct of crude oil, is not a sustainable product or service. But Anthony R. Kovscek, a Stanford College professor and senior fellow at the Precourt Institute for Electrical power, stated reducing product sales of petroleum jelly would do tiny to reverse climate alter. “Changing your driving and commuting behaviors, as effectively as driving the most fuel-effective motor vehicle you can pay for is far more probable to have an impact on the fossil gasoline industry than tamping down gross sales of Vaseline.”
There are lots of alternate options to petroleum jelly, such as mineral oils, plant oils and animal waxes. Although Hirsch and Zeichner endorse Waxelene, they cautioned that products and solutions other than petroleum jelly are not as occlusive, are much more costly and have pitfalls of contamination.
“Plants are bio-accumulators so something like shea butter desires to be highly refined in advance of it hits the market place,” Palermino claimed. And, she concluded, the refinement process makes a huge carbon footprint.
